inherent in the most interior degrees of not been great, but the light has been their substance, form, and use. kept shining, and frequently as many as FORTY assemble to worship on Sunday MELBOURNE- ORDINATION OF MR. evenings, and many happy seasons have PAYTEN. The Derby and Chesterfield been enjoyed in their modest room. On Reporter of January 30th, contains the the third week in January they had a teafollowing:-"Ordination Service at the party to celebrate the attainment of his New Jerusalem Church.-Mr. Thomas EIGHTIETH year by their worthyold leader, Kidd Payten, who for seven years past and ninety-two assembled together. has officiated as minister of the Society After tea, Mr. Rous drew attention to worshipping in the above church, was the solemn feelings that press upon a on Sunday afternoon last admitted by thoughtful person who has attained an ordination into the ministry of the New age like his, and felt naturally how near Church. The ordaining minister was he had arrived to his eternal home. the Rev. E. Madeley of Birmingham. The secretary and deacon, as the representatives of the Society, having presented Mr. Payten for ordination at the communion table, the ordaining minister opened the service by the Lord's Prayer and an address explanatory of the service of ordination, after which was received the candidate's profession of Faith; and a considerable number of questions followed, embracing all the leading doctrines of the Church which required affirmative answers from the candidate, and a promise of fidelity in the performance of all his duties, according to the best of his knowledge and ability as a minister of the New Church. The ordination prayer was then offered up, and the act of ordination proceeded with, the candidate kneeling. The charge and exhortation to the minister was then given by the officiating minister in a very impressive manner, and was followed by the general thanksgiving and glorification. In the evening a sermon was delivered by the Rev. E. Madeley, expounding the teaching of Holy Scripture respecting the office and duties of a minister, and exhorting the newly-ordained minister to fidelity and prudent zeal in the discharge of his duties. The services were felt to be solemnly impressive and edifying, and hopes are entertained that they will not only add to the efficiency of the minister's labours at Melbourne, but also to his usefulness to the Church at large." YARMOUTH-Mr. Rous on the attainment of his 80th year.-It will be known by many of our readers, that for some years Mr. Rous, fishmerchant, of London and Yarmouth, has exerted himself to make the truths of the New Jerusalem known in the latter town, where he has latterly chiefly resided. The success has He explained how necessary it was to know the nature of the future state that we might prepare for it, and he read the views which have been entertained by different people recorded in T. C. R. n. 160, which he introduced as the views of eminent persons a hundred years ago. He urged in a most solemn manner that the young and all who heard him should attain right views of heaven, and then live so as to gain two heavens, the one a heavenly home on earth, and the other the everlasting heaven hereafter. Another gentleman also addressed the meeting; after which a succession of readings, recitations and singing formed the remainder of a very delightful and edifying evening. It is to be hoped that the efforts of our venerable friend to sow good seed will sooner or later prove a blessing to many souls, and that a society may be formed and flourish in that important town of our east coast, which will hold in cherished remenbrance the kind heart and noble aims of the good old octogenarian Mr. Rous. WIDOW OF THE LATE PROFESSOR GEORGE BUSH.-The amount of subscriptions received for this lady is about £44, and it is proposed to keep the list open until the end of the present month of March, up to which time further contributions will be thankfully received by Rev. JOHN PRESLAND, 25 Rochester Square, London, N. W. Mr. THOMAS WATSON, 19 Highbury Crescent, London, N. APPEAL FOR AID TO PUBLISH A LIFE oF THE REV. JOHN CLOWES.-The dis semination of the knowledge of the doctrines of the New Church by every good and honourable means ought to be the zealous aim of every reader of Swedenborg. With this aim in view, we ap peal to the Church for aid in a work of Mr. and Mrs. James Holt, of York great importance, and, if successful, of Street, Manchester. The deceased was equally great use. This is the publication of the " 'Life and Correspondence of the Rev. John Clowes, by the late George Harrison, Esq." This deeply interesting work contains a large amount of information respecting that truly great and heavenly-minded apostle of the New Church not yet in the possession of the public. The book is calculated to cause inquiry, and, if extensively circulated, will, no doubt, by the Lord's blessing, effect much good. Mr. Harrison's MS. memoir and materials have since his death been in the possession of his sonin-law, Mr Compton, who has gladly availed himself of the valuable co-operation of Mr. Boyle. No pains will be spared in making the work complete, and interesting not only to the New Church public, but to the clergy and others, who may be disposed to inquire into the views of Swedenborg and the life of a clergyman so universally respected as Mr. Clowes. It is intended that the work shall be published at cost price, which will probably be from five to seven shillings per copy, according to the number printed. Subscribers will receive, when the book is published, a full return to the amount of their subscriptions. These, which will be duly acknowledged, may be sent to Mr. THEODORE COMPTON, Winscombe, near Weston-super-Mare; or Mr. J. R. BOYLE, Bacup, near Manchester. a member of the Salford Society, and for some years filled the offices of secretary to the Sunday school and the Junior Members' Society. During his connection with the Sunday school he also gave it important aid by his services at the harmonium; and likewise rendered excellent service at the piano in most of our social meetings. Consumption ultimately compelled him to withdraw from these labours, and from his attendance at church, and at last removed him to the eternal world in the twenty-eighth year of his age. His remains were interred in the Heywood Cemetery, and his memory will long be held in fond remembrance, not only by his family, but also by a wide circle of friends. Birth. On January 28, 1874, at 79 Lisson Grove, Marylebone, the wife of Mr. Edwin Parr of a daughter. Marriages. On January 13th, at the New Jerusalem Church, Old Lane, Worsley, by Mr. Thos. Mackereth, F. R.A.S., Mr. John Bowker to Miss Mary Jane Cooke, both of Swinton. On January 15th, at the same place of worship, by Mr. Mackereth, Mr. Thomas Evans of Chorley, to Miss Alice Thomas Monks, youngest daughter of Mr. Robert Monks, of Rose Hill House, Clifton, near Manchester. Obituary. Removed to the spiritual world on January 20th, Robert Holt, the son of W. REV. WOODBURY M. FERNALD.-The Messenger of January 21st contains an obituary notice of this minister, who passed into the spiritual world, after a few days' sickness, on the 10th day of December 1873. "He was a man of much activity of thought, fervency of feeling, and honesty of purpose, as may be seen and felt in the spirit of the books and sermons he has publishedGod in His Providence,' the Life of Professor Bush,' a 'Compendium' from Swedenborg's theological works in a large volume." Mr. Fernald "was charitable and broad in his views of the Church, saying in the preface of his book on God in His Providence,' 'while we hold ourselves in strong sympathy with the Church universal, we believe also that God is at this day forming out of the good of all the various sects a New Church answering to John's description of the New Jerusalem. We would not, therefore, be understood as writing for any sect or organization or particular body of men. We are heart-sick of sectarianism in all its forms." The leading study and effort of his mind for many years has been to obtain a satisfactory knowledge of spiritual substance and spiritual life. world with a cheerful and undoubted "And he has now gone into the other hope of finding a happy home, suited to his state and wants, where he will soon meet the friends he has left behind, who are indeed many in numbers and warm in regard." Darkness is LIGHT and Liberty are most intimately associated. restraint and captivity to the sight, as light is its freedom and enfranchisement. "Light," says the wise man, "is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing to see the sun;" and it will be found that a primary element of the pleasure thence derived is the sense of liberty which the presence of light confers, enabling us to expatiate o'er all around. Space, which enters so largely into our ideas both of the beautiful and sublime, does so by conveying to the mind the sense of freedom and greatness-the first, by its non-opposition, suggesting liberty; the second, by its non-limitation, suggesting infinity. But it is obvious that without light space would, in this respect, be synonymous with nothing; and however it may be metaphysically considered apart from light, it is only as illuminated space or illimitable light that it can be regarded as a constituent of those gentler or grander emotions of our nature to which we attach the epithets of beauty and sublimity. And methinks this sense of freedom and greatness is at once a reminiscence and a foreshadowing of man's original liberty and dignity as the freeman of the universe, and "the heir of the world," lost in the first, and restored in the second Adam. Hence the feeling of property connected with the aesthetic enjoyment of nature. "I feel the same enjoyment," says Addison, "in the prospect of groves and meadows that another does in their possession;" or, as the same thought is admirably varied K by Emerson, "The farm is Smith's, the mill and the stream are Browne's, but the landscape is mine." And still more forcibly as well as beautifully is this "inheritance in nature" expressed by Cowper in lines which, though well known, are too apposite to be omitted— "He (the Christian) looks abroad into the varied fields Of Nature, and though poor perhaps compared With those whose mansions glitter in his sight, Calls the delightful scenery all his own. His are the mountains, and the valleys his, And smiling, say, 'My Father made them all.'" The close relation of light to liberty is clearly recognised in the Scriptures. We shall just instance that passage of the evangelical prophet, where, speaking of the gift of eternal life in Christ, he describes Him as given "for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house" (Isa. xlii. 6, 7; see also xlix. 8, 9). In But light is thus intimately associated not only with liberty, but with life, of which it is the most appropriate, expressive, and most delightful emblem, as indeed it is an essential element. It is, therefore, the most complete edos, form or idea, of eternal life, forfeited in the fall, and restored in the incarnation of the Divine Word. proof of this we have only to turn to the first chapter of John, where light and the Eternal Logos, or manifested life of God, are mentioned as convertible terms-verses 1, 4, 5, 9, with 1 John i. 1, 2,—and in Isa. xlix. 6, 7, Acts xiii. 47, light is synonymous with salvation. "I have set Thee for a light of the Gentiles, that Thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth." And by referring to the foregoing verse, it will be evident that under this form is included "everlasting life" and "salvation." Light, it may be observed, considered as an eldos, or form of everlasting life and salvation, is light in combination with heat or genial warmth. The original word aur, as is well known to Hebrew scholars, is expressive both of fire and light: from aur is derived aurum, gold, and aurora, or the dawn; and the epithets bestowed by ancient poets on its personification as "golden," "rosy - fingered," "saffron-robed," etc., are expressive at once of illumination and geniality, denoting in combination that life which this delightful inception of day brings to all things, that at its approach seem to awake from the death-sleep induced by night. And the further poetic, or rather mythic, representation of Aurora as opening her gates, implies the previous darkness as a state of captivity. Myth and truth harmonize our Lord, in reference to His incarnation, is called the East, or the Orient (Ezek. xliii. 2); and His "going forth" is said to be "prepared as the morning" (Hos. vi. 3). The intervening or intercepting power is called "the power of darkness" (Luke xxii. 53); and this is as effectually taken away as the gloomy shadows of night are dispersed by the cheering dawn, which both in the natural and spiritual degree is "heaven opened." The beloved disciple's summation of Gospel truth accordingly is, "The darkness is past, and the True Light now shineth" (1 John ii. 8). But, as in the case of the captive, there is a subjective as well as an objective darkness. Through the night, sight is of little use, and the eye is better closed in sleep than in trying to penetrate the surrounding obscurity. But it is miserable to continue in sleep with daylight around us; yet such is the state of fallen man. In an atmosphere of life and light he "sleeps the sleep" which, if not broken, will be "of death," and he is as if night still enclosed him in her ebon prisonhouse hence the prophet, speaking on the part of such as are in this state, says, "We stumble at noonday as in the night" (Isa. lix. 10); and therefore the Apostle says, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph. v. 14). The man spiritually awaking gets light in the same way that the man does who awakes naturally-namely, by entering into the enjoyment of the light already arisen. Joy and exhilaration are the first effects of waking both to the light of this world and "the light of life," but both also communicate vitality and action. The man who wakes to the former is anxious to shake off everything connected or associated with the darkness in which he has slept, and while his first enjoyment of the light is necessarily passive, he soon proceeds to a more active participation of the new-found blessing. Much more is this the case with him who awakes to the higher light. "For ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light; for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth" (Eph. v. 8, 9). From this it is evident that under the all-comprehensive term, light, are included “all goodness, righteousness, and truth," like all colours and |